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- #481
That's the MG keeping it that wet. MG has a lower than normal for cannabis centric soil perlite/vermiculite ratio so it's not only going to have a higher perched water table but it will also hold more water throughout the media. Ideally what you want is for the media to hold onto the water/nutrient long enough for the plants to uptake them but not long enough to reduce the gas exchange in the soil. If the roots can't take up O² and expel CO² they will stop metabolising also known as stunting. Same goes for the bacterial and fungal colonies residing in the rhizosphere.
As far as soil amendments pertaining to fungal and bacterial colonization, I typically dust the transplant hole with some mycorrhizae from Xtreme Gardening so that the fungal colony attaches to the root system as fast as possible. In clone or seed I use a little Voodoo Juice for the first couple weeks from AN to get a beneficial bacteria colony going.
One of the tricks I use when running in coco only mediums is to add in water retention beads into the mix. This gives me the fast draining I want for maximum O² exchange but keeps more water in the media without inhibiting the O² level
I see what you mean about the perched water table now with MG, and why it matters.
After working with the Lush soil for over two weeks now I see the top 4" can be almost bone dry while at the same time the bag can be very heavy indicating the soil below is very wet (as opposed to tue MG which is mostly all waterlogged until it dries).
Normally I would want the entire container to be moist for shallow roots when starting vegetable seedlings for the garden, but it doesn't seem to matter with my second weed seedling.
I feel like a fish out of water starting a seed in a 3 gal container, but so far so good. I've been reading the leaves to determine when to water and letting this trump the weight of the bag at this early stage.
It seems like I'm risking watering too much, but when you have a plant that is starting to wilt in 4" of bone dry media and then it perks up as soon as you water it, this makes me think I am watering correctly.